HUDA told to install crash barriers or pay Rs 10.5 crore fine

GURGAON: The highway administration court on Friday threatened to penalize HUDA if it did not take its orders seriously and install crash barriers on the service road in front of Ambience Mall near Shankar Chowk.
The court had ordered the civic body to install crash barriers to segregate the traffic on the sector road from the service road between km 24.220 to km 24.620 near Shankar Chowk, in response to a petition filed by S C Talwar.The petition had requested the court to issue necessary orders to HUDA so that at least two lanes are segregated on the service lane of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway in front of Ambience Mall to allow traffic movement from Shankar Chowk towards DLF Phase III without a detour from Rajokri.
The court had directed HUDA to at least install crash barriers on the service lane so that traffic from sector roads could remain separated. On Saturday, the court said if its orders were not followed, HUDA would be made to pay a penalty to the tune of Rs 10.5 crore. The fine has been ascertained at the rate of Rs 42,000 per square meter for an area of 2,500 square metre which belongs to NHAI but used by the commuters of HUDA sector road.
"Because of lack of barricading and clear demarcation, the traffic intermingles and causes chaos," the court had observed. .
HUDA had earlier claimed that the barricading was not done because the work on the 16-lane project was on and if any segregation was done, the commuters would start using the space for parking. The work being carried out by HUDA belongs to the 16-lane project under a PPP (public private partnership) model that will connect the toll plaza with Golf Course Road near Sector 56.
The final order has not yet been given as a related court case is pending before the high court wherein the Ambience Mall has demanded the 50-metre-wide greenbelt area be handed over by the department of town and country planning to HUDA so that the 16-lane project can be carried out.
"The area which requires to be segregated also includes the area in litigation (outside Ambience Mall) in the high court. Unless there is clarity on that, we can't dispose of this case here," said highway administrator A K Sharma. The next hearing in the highway court will be on October 7.